


This Fortress of Mine

by curseofjustice



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide, References to Depression, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:00:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23841886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/curseofjustice/pseuds/curseofjustice
Summary: Anya Tanaka was recruited by the Phantom Thieves after awakening to her Persona powers. Her curiosity piqued after the discovery and infiltration of Futaba Sakura's palace to see if Persona users could also have a palace. After jokingly entering her own name into the Nav, she was floored to find she had one of her own. Anya attempts to hide the discovery from the Phantom Thieves while fighting her own demons. On the flip side, Anya becomes closer with the well-mannered detective prince Goro Akechi as tensions rise within the Phantom Thieves. As Anya faces the suppressed truths within her palace's walls, a horrific encounter leads to her sudden disappearance. The Phantom Thieves, along with Goro Akechi's help work around the clock to find her, taking their search to the depths of Mementos and eventually her palace. They begin to unravel Anya's web of lies and secrets in the effort to save her life, but is it already too late?
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 18





	1. A Discovery

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic I've ever put out on the internet! I adore the Persona series among others, and this is loosely based off a fanfic I read quite some time ago (that I can't remember what it's called now, I'm sorry!) that stopped at the second chapter. I'm hoping to do it some justice. Please feel free to leave some constructive criticism in the comments! Enjoy~
> 
> For reference purposes, the inspiration for Anya's palace is Hallow Bastion from the Kingdom Hearts series.

“Candidate found.”

_What?_

Out of curiosity and boredom, Anya had entered her name into the Meta-Nav to find that it was a hit. She heard footsteps trudging up the staircase and so she hid her phone underneath the blankets. A gentle knock on the door was followed up by her sister Natalie peeking into her room.

“Hey kiddo, everything okay?”

Anya, who was rocked in disbelief moments before appeared calm in front of her eldest sibling. She smiled and nodded her head in reassurance.

“I’m alright. How was work?” She asked.

Natalie entered the room, leaning against the wall beside her desk.

“Tiring. I don’t enjoy having my lectures until 9pm.”

Natalie was a law professor at the university Anya was enrolled in. In fact, nearly all the Phantom Thieves were attending the same institution. The only exceptions being Yusuke, who went to a prestigious art school not too far away, and Ryuji who had begun an apprenticeship working as an electrician. They were still in the thieving business, although not as frequently as they had been in high school. The thieves would take to Mementos once every two weeks to change the hearts of seemingly ordinary people with distorted desires. However, Anya was indeed guilty of making secret trips to Mementos on her own in times of emotional distress. To the best of her knowledge, nobody in the Phantom Thieves had begun to catch on.

Last month, they had changed the heart of Futaba Sakura who had been tortured by the belief that she was responsible for her mother’s death. Futaba had awakened to her Persona in her own palace which got Anya wondering, can Persona users have their own palaces? She consulted Morgana who assured her that Persona users could not possibly have palaces as they have no distorted desires. Makoto concurred with the feline, but for one reason or another Anya remained unconvinced.

“You’re a night owl though, so I know you would prefer such classes.” Natalie snapped her out of deep thought.

“You know me so well.” Anya smiled. Her sister yawned, stretching her arms above her head and tilting her neck from side to side.

“Well, I’m off to bed. Don’t stay up too late, okay?” Natalie headed into the hallway closing the door behind her.

“Goodnight kiddo.”

“Night Nat.” Anya replied.

She waited for the footsteps to dissipate before tip toeing across the room and carefully locking the door. Anya returned to her bed and rummaged through the covers to find her phone. She opened the Nav again and was greeted by her name in bold red letters. For the heck of it, she tried entering her sister’s name in to see if she had a palace.

“No candidate found.”

 _That’s bizarre_ , she thought to herself. Anya begun to type in the names of her friends and fellow Phantom Thieves. However, she was the only one with a positive result.

 _I guess Morgana is wrong_.

The trial-and-error stage of finding where her palace was had begun. She entered places that she visited frequently such as the university, the old temple in Kichijoji and even her favourite sushi restaurant. All the suggestions produced the same result.

“No candidate found.”

Am I thinking too deeply? Anya wondered. She grabbed the notebook off her desk and began to write a list of places where her palace could have been. After nearly fifteen minutes of no luck, she tried something on the more… simpler side.

 _Home_ , she typed.

“Candidate found.”

 _Really?_ Anya rolled her eyes, mentally kicking herself for not guessing sooner. Now, the hardest part.

What do I perceive my home to be?

Again, she began the process of entering phrases into the Nav. For starters, Anya put in previous palace locations that her and the Thieves had been to.

_Castle, tomb, museum… all of Shibuya?_

“No candidate found.”

 _Goddamn it_ , Anya cursed. She pulled out her laptop and consulted google for possible suggestions. She went through a barrage of potential hits. Military compound, cavern, hospital…

_Fortress._

“Candidate found.”

Anya was unwillingly thrusted into the Metaverse from the comfort of her bed. Her landing was anything but graceful as she nearly rolled off the edge of a cliff. She lay there unmoving for a moment, allowing her body to recover from the impact. Eventually, she stood up and brushed off her legs.

 _I’m still in my normal clothes_. She realized, finding comfort in knowing that she was not seen as a threat… yet.

Anya could not believe her eyes.

There she was, standing in front of a colossal fortress surrounded by impossibly high waterfalls. She began her ascent by stepping onto floating rock formations and magical platforms that allowed her to reach the front gates. The twilight sun basked the citadel in a golden, almost angelic glow. Anya’s gaze travelled up the sparkling structure to its highest balcony when she saw a woman looking upon her.

“Hey!” She called out, but the woman retreated inside.

Anya turned away from the sparkling structure and scanned the oceanic horizons. There were no boats sailing the lonely seas and no planes soaring the cloudless skies. Even Futaba’s palace which was smack dab in the middle of the desert was still within grasp of civilization. However, this was the most desolate place her imagination could conjure up. Her eyes fixated on the golden gates once again only to find it was under lock and key. Anya reached into her pockets, hoping she might have some bobby pins hiding in the abyss of her pajamas. To her disappointment, she had nothing that could help her sneak in. Unable to resume the exploration Anya called it a night, using her phone to return to the real world.  
  


* * *

The time was 1:20am.

Anya found herself staring up at the glow-in-the-dark star stickers she had put up on her ceiling from when she was a kid. Their mother up and left suddenly, but the Tanaka girls had a happy childhood with a loving father at their side. This only amplified Anya's confusion.

_Why do I have a palace?_

She had gone over every negative experience in her head. Dissecting the memories until nothing but the raw emotions were left. Anya could think of no distorted desires she held and was forced to give up for the time being.

Anya pulled the covers over her shoulders. She closed her eyes and listened to the late summer rain pour out the window.

 _My exploration starts tomorrow_. She whispered before drifting off to sleep.


	2. Goro Akechi

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the wait! Here's the second chapter of the story! I will do my best to update on a weekly basis! I have frequent migraines so I hope people can understand that I'm not always able to post on time! Anyways, I hope you enjoy!

“ _May I sit here?_ ”

Anya was snapped from her thoughts as a pleasant voice man’s voice filled her ears. She swiveled her chair around to be greeted by the rookie detective Goro Akechi himself. He smiled at her as she struggled to force words out of her mouth.

“Y-yeah sure.” She stuttered.

Akechi sat down beside her, unzipping his briefcase as he took a notebook and pen out of it. Anya stared wide-eyed at the projector screen ahead of her not knowing what to do. She thought of pulling out her phone and sending the group chat a quick text. However, she decided against it as her law professor began the two-hour long lecture. She would just have to wait until later to tell them.

_What the hell is he doing here?_

Anya did her best to stay focused on the lecture material despite the obvious distraction beside her. While the morality of law seemed to intrigue Akechi, Anya was nearly at her wits end with the subject. She started doodling clouds around her slide headings as the professor facilitated discussions with other students and Akechi was no exception. He went on about the morality of law as he connected his arguments with those of philosophers before their time. Anya’s eyes were glued to her notebook even after the discussion had ended.

“Alright we’ll take a five-minute break and come back at ten to one.” Her professor instructed as the class chatter erupted.

“The morality of law must _really_ bore you if you’re drawing on your lecture notes.” Akechi observed.

“Not everyone can be as enthusiastic as you are.” Anya replied with a drawn-out yawn.

_Bzz._

Anya’s phone vibrated in the pocket of her cardigan. The texts became more persistent and she did her best to ignore it. She did not want to risk revealing any messages between her and the Phantom Thieves to the man that was hunting them down.

The attendance sheet came around for the students to mark. Anya wrote down her name and student number before passing it off to the ace detective.

“Anya Tanaka—I’ve certainly not met anyone named Anya before.”

She watched Akechi’s penmanship as the ink glided across the lined paper with eloquence. He handed it off to the next person and faced Anya once again.

“It’s Russian. My mom is—”

_Mother._

“…Russian.” Anya managed to say. Her expression soured as Akechi tilted his head in confusion. She snapped out of it, smiling as if nothing had happened. The projector screen flashed on and a new lecture slide on legal reasoning appeared. The chatter became nothing more than broken whispers as students hurried to copy the information in their notebooks. Anya had begun to focus on the lecture when Akechi whispered something only she could hear.

“What a pretty name.” He said before putting up his hand to answer a question.

Anya’s cheeks blushed a thousand shades of red.

There was a mad rush of students hurrying out of the lecture hall the second the clock struck four. Anya watched as the crowds struggled to get though the doors on the left and right. She took the time to pack up her things and check her phone for messages. Natalie was the first among the bunch.

_Hey kiddo, I’m going to be home late tonight. There are leftovers in the fridge, love you._

Anya smiled and typed back.

_No worries. Love you Nat._

She tapped on the private chat between her and Futaba and begun to scroll through the dozens of messages.

_Anya!_

_Akira and I hung out today and we went to a game shop in Akihabara._

_It. Was. Terrifying!_

_I got lost in a crowd and couldn’t handle it…_

_So, I kinda-sorta curled up into a ball until a policeman came._

_My heart was leaping out of my chest!_

_Akira and Morgana eventually found me… those slowpokes. By then I was a stuttering mess and he told the police officer that we were family._

_But I felt kinda calm being close to him afterwards. Then I asked him to be my “key item” and he said yes! Do normal people flirt like that?_

_I need your womanly advice!_

Anya found herself giggling as she responded to the texts.

_I’m glad everything turned out alright! I’ll bring me and my “womanly advice” by LeBlanc on my way home LOL._

Futaba took a liking to Anya despite her awkwardness around Makoto and Ann. Anya had helped Akira clean her room while she was working against the clock to stop Medjed. She had left a post-it-note on her desk with her phone number on it telling Futaba to message her if she needed anything. After that, they began talking on a semi-regular basis. Sometimes Futaba would withdraw from a day of social interaction, but she would always come back. Anya enjoyed her rants about video games and new computer models over a cup of Sojiro’s delicious coffee. Futaba always left her smiling no matter what.

Lastly, Anya checked the Phantom Thieves chat that had more messages than Futaba’s. She was scrolling through the messages, most of them were from Ryuji who was eager to go after their next target.

“I wonder if you’re just as popular as me.”

Akechi’s pleasant, but startling voice nearly causing Anya to drop her phone. He smiled; her clumsiness apparently amused him.

“I’m nowhere near the charming ace detective in TV ratings.” She replied, putting her phone in her pocket.

“I believe you just called me “charming” Ms. Tanaka.”

Anya rolled her eyes again as her lips curved into a smile. She threw her bag over her shoulder and walked out with Akechi by her side.

“Why are you here Akechi? Did the police kick you off the Phantom Thieves case?” Anya grilled him.

“I bet the Phantom Thieves would be happy if they had. Alas, I’ve enrolled in the criminal justice program here. Student by day and detective by night I suppose.”

Akechi held the door leading outside for her. She thanked them, and they continued to walk across campus. The golden hour was upon them as the sun crept towards the western horizon. Anya’s hair was a fiery blaze under the afternoon sun as the curls bounced with each one of her steps. The two engaged in small talk as they walked, discussing the nice weather and classes they were in. Anya’s focus was politics while Akechi’s was law. He asked her why she was stuck taking a law course she clearly did not care for.

“It’s a mandatory course for me.” Anya replied with the same enthusiasm as she had in class.

Akechi chuckled as they slowed to a stroll. Anya shielded her eyes from the light, seeing that she forgot her sunglasses at home. Akechi did the same as they came to a crossroads in the middle of the campus.

“Where are you headed to?” Akechi asked, his back facing the beating sun.

“A friend’s house and then home, and you?” Anya squinted her eyes as she struggled to keep him in her sight.

“The police station. Just because it’s the weekend doesn’t mean my work ends. Besides, Nijima works me around the clock.”

“Well, have a good weekend and don’t work _too_ hard.” She waved as she continued to walk south.

“You as well, Ms. Tanaka.”

_Don’t work too hard. Otherwise, you’ll figure out I’m a Phantom Thief,_ Anya thought as she turned away from him.  
  


* * *

_  
Ms. Tanaka._

Anya proceeded down the alleyway where LeBlanc was as the memory made its way into her conscience. She found herself blushing at the thought of him teasing her in class. Even when she had something clever to say, he would always one-up her by articulating himself in the most sophisticated manner. Nonetheless, she knew she had to be careful around him due to the nature of his investigation. He loathed the Phantom Thieves and everything they stood for despite having the same end goal, bringing criminals to justice.

_How did he put it again?_

“ _If they are willing to partake in illegal activities in to achieve their freedom, then they are no better than the criminals they go after.”_

Anya peeked into LeBlanc to find Akira, Futaba sitting at one of the booths enjoying a cup of coffee. Sojiro, on the other hand, was busy behind the counter most likely cooking his delicious curry. She entered the café and was given a warm welcome. Anya sat down on the opposite side of the two lovebirds, Futaba resting her head on Akira’s shoulder. Sojiro shot Akira a look that can only be described as: _I’m watching you._

“Sojiro! Can you make Anya a Mocha Matari? She has to try it!” Futaba asked excitedly. Sojiro nodded, placing the lid on the curry he was cooking up and proceeded to grind some coffee beans.

“So, what game did you buy?” Anya asked.

“Power Intuition! Akira and I are going to play it later. Wanna stick around for a bit and watch?”

“I would… but I have a hot date with a case brief assignment.” She joked.

_Lies._

“You really hate that law class, don’t you?” Akira jumped in on the conversation.

“I don’t know how Makoto does it. It’s the most boring stuff.”

“Coffee’s ready.” Sojiro interjected. He walked around the counter and set down the critically acclaimed Mocha Matari in front of her. Anya thanked him as her hands wrapped around the porcelain mug, entrapping the heat in her palms.

“Well? Go on.” He insisted.

Anya had gone nose blind to the smell of coffee every time she walked into LeBlanc. So, she took a sip. Her taste buds were enveloped by various spices mixed with a chocolatey consistency. The taste took her back in time to when she was young, reminiscent of a memory she vaguely remembered. It made her nostalgic of her family home in the countryside surrounded by dense forests and mountains in the distance. Anya wondered if she had photos of it in storage, she would have to check later. Nonetheless, she gave Sojiro a thumbs up as the rim of the mug parted from her lips.

“Incredible as always.” Anya said with her bright smile.

“Glad to hear it.” Sojiro placed his fedora atop his head as he made his way to the door.

“I’ll be back in a bit. Akira, you can serve customers if any show up.” With that, he left.

Futaba leaned forward with her elbows on the table, her hands cupping her face. Akira looked at her lovingly, a permanent faint smile plastered on his face. He reached for his own mug and brought it to his lips as he sipped on Sojiro’s delicious coffee brew.

“So! Let’s talk Phantom Thieves.” Futaba initiated.

“Well—” Anya began, “you guys aren’t going to believe this, but Goro Akechi is in my class.”

Akira nearly choked on his coffee. Futaba looked as if she was about to have a nervous breakdown.

“Uh since when did he start attending Waseda?” Her voice trembled.

“From what he told me-”

“You spoke to him?” Akira interrupted.

“He sat beside me in class.”

Anya took another sip of her coffee as she studied their shocked faces. Akira did what he could to calm down Futaba, seemingly brushing his hand up and down her arm was doing the trick.

“He’s working closely with Makoto’s sister on the Phantom Thieves case. Maybe it was coincidental that he sat beside me today, but something feels _off_.”

“I don’t think we need to get worked up over a single interaction with him. We should let the others know though and keep an eye out.” Akira said, returning to his calm and collected self. Futaba came to her senses too and nodded.

“Agreed.”

Anya stood up and walked towards the kitchen sink, washing out the coffee residue lingering at the bottom of the mug. She gathered her belongings and proceeded towards the door.

“I’ll let you know if anything else comes up.”

“See ya!” Akira waved as did Futaba. She served them her big, bright smile as she walked outside, passing Sojiro who was on his way back from the supermarket. He tipped his hat in her direction and she waved goodbye. As soon as she was out of sight her demeanor of happiness disappeared.

_You are such a liar.  
  
_

* * *

  
Anya stared at her phone. All she had to do was press ‘start navigation’ and she would be hurdled to the front gates of her palace. However, she hesitated.

The time was 7:30pm, and Anya seemingly had the apartment to herself for the night. She could hear her neighbours to the left fighting as they always had, throwing kitchenware across the apartment. No matter how many times the police were called the outcome was the same. The dysfunctional couple would be given warnings or fines and would be at each other throats again a few days later.

_Where is the justice in that?_ Anya thought, pulling her legs up to her chest. They both had shadows in Mementos, and with everyday that passed their desires became more distorted. She would have to do something about that, eventually.

Anya took a deep breath, closing her eyes as her finger hovered over the bright red button that was tempting her to push it.

So she did.


End file.
